1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a flexible tube squeezing device and, more particularly, is concerned with an internally coupled and stabilized dual roller flexible tube squeezing device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is a common problem for a user dispensing a fluid material, such as toothpaste, shampoo, adhesive, caulking, paints, etc., by manually squeezing a flexible tube, to have the contents of the tube spread throughout the tube. In particular, the contents spreads to the closed end of the tube as the user is attempting to dispense the contents from the open end.
The problem becomes greater as the tube becomes less full. Each time it is desired to dispense more of the fluid material, the user must first squeeze the tube starting at its closed end and working toward the open end in order to gather the contents at the open end.
It has been found desirable to provide assistance to the manual dispensing of the fluid material contained within the flexible tube in such a manner that precludes the contents from spreading to the closed end of the tube. The desired objective is to gather the contents towards the open end of the flexible tube, close off the emptied portion of the flexible tube, and thereby make each successive dispensing of a portion of the tube's contents as easy as the first.
A number of dual roller tube squeezing devices have been proposed in the prior patent art that attempt to provide this assistance to manual dispensing. Some representative examples of such tube squeezing devices are the ones disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. to Johnson (1,773,104 and 1,983,462), Hicks (3,999,688), and Kirkland (4,639,251), Italian patents to Bossi (444,344), Rubin (446,267 and 452,153) and Massai (464,081), and WIPO Intl. Publ. No. WO 91/09783. Many of these dual roller tube squeezing devices utilize pairs of cylindrical rollers which provide a slot between them into which the closed end of the flexible tube can be inserted. One of the dual roller tube squeezing devices disclosed in Italian Pat. No. 452,153 to Rubin utilizes a pair of rollers having internal solid nonelastic cores and elastic external coverings and a pair of flat tie rods pivotally interconnecting the rollers at their opposite ends by pins inserted through the opposite ends of the flat tie rods and into the centers of the opposite ends of the rollers.
However, a practical and effective technique to couple the rollers together is not provided in these disclosures. As a consequence, a need still exists for improvement in the design and construction of an internally coupled dual roller flexible tube squeezing device.